Children: Maintenance

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the Child Support Agency has  (a) assessed as being due and  (b) collected in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and I have seen the response.
	 Letter from Stephen Geraghty:
	In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
	You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much the Child Support Agency has (a) assessed as being due and (b) collected in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.
	The attached table provides an estimate of the value of money assessed as being due and the value of money collected or arranged.
	The value of money assessed as being due has been calculated by taking the average weekly assessment at September each year (excluding nil liability), and multiplying it by the caseload as at September.
	Figures on average weekly assessment and caseload are available within the Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary of Statistics available in the House of Commons library or online at
	http://www.childmaintenance.org/en/publications/statistics.html
	
		
			  Table 1: Assessed amount due and collections 
			  Quarter to :  Cases with maintenance liability  Average weekly assessment (£)  Annual assessed amount  (£ million)  Total Child Maintenance collected or arranged  (£ million) 
			 September 2006 751,700 37 1,146 867 
			 September 2007 825,100 35 1,502 942 
			 September 2008 855,700 35 1,557 1,090 
			 September 2009 834,000 34 1,475 1,131 
			 September 2010 854,100 34 1,510 1,146 
			  Notes: 1. Caseload figures rounded to nearest 100. 2. Arrears and collections figures rounded to nearest £1m. 3. Caseload figures include cases administered on both the CS2 and CSCS computer systems as well as cases administered off system with the exception of the September 2006 figure and represent a snapshot as of September each year. 4. Collections and arrangements are a true representation of the amount collected and arranged over the 12 months to September. 5. Weekly assessment figures include cases administered on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems only and exclude cases administered off system. Work is underway to more accurately calculate the value of assessments.